Wish Tap Tempo button color change on beat count

Moondog Wily

Moondog Wily

Experienced
I have been experimenting with my options for playing along to a click, and think a change in the tap tempo button color on beat X (or Y or Z) could be useful. I have tried IEM's (in one ear and in both ears), but I do not like being so disconnected from the sound of the room and the other elements around me. I have tried using the click in my monitors (but not sent to the PA), but I get some bleed into my percussion and vocal mics, so I don't like that option either. I don't know that the visual tempo will work for me for this particular need without trying it, but I believe it would be a useful feature none the less on the FC6 and FC12.

So per the FC manual "The Tap Tempo function flashes the tempo on the footswitch LED ring.". The concept I am wishing for is, being able to set the LED ring color change every 4 beats, or every two beats, or whatever the user decides. This would allow me to see when the beginning of the measure is. As it currently stands, the tempo is there, but I don't know where the "one" is in that measure. So I would like for example, a red LED ring for the first beat, and green for each of the 3 beats thereafter (if in 4/4 time), then back to red on the one and on to the green for the next 3, etc.

The two elements that you would be assigning for the tap tempo switch are the LED ring colors (could be a selection of up to say 4 colors so you could indicate each beat in a 4/4 measure with a different color) and the frequency of that color (every 1st beat, make red, every other beat make green or every 1st beat red, every second beat orange every third beat yellow and every fourth beat green).

I know the FAS team has a lot of "wishes" that we put out there, and the fact that they give any of it to use at no charge is incredible and very much appreciated! This is one of my wishes ;~))
 
I kind of like the idea...but I'm trying to understand how the Axe FX III could even "know" which one of the 4 beats was "the one."

(And as someone who plays prog-rock sometimes bordering on math-rock, one certainly can't presume the measure has only four beats! I've played parts in 13/8 that seriously groovy, such that everyone on the dance floor was shaking their booty, only to find on the second phrase of the chorus that their booty was confusingly not-in-quite-the-right-place. That tune won't hit the dance-charts any time soon, but for folks in the band, it was fun to watch.)

Beyond the question of how the Axe III could "know" which beat it was on, I'm also uncertain why it would matter. I use a lot of timed echoes that are synchronized to the tempo of the song, but if I play a note, its timed echoes will sound exactly the same whether I play the initial note on the "one" or on the "four."

I'm sure you understand your use-case better than I do, though!

Perhaps you could clarify?

UPDATE: It occurs to me that you might have a sequence that you triggered to start in some way. I suppose that start-event could be declared "the one." Or, perhaps you wanted the Axe FX III to be able to listen to an external MIDI Clock, transmitting measures and beats?
 
Dr. Dipwad said:
I kind of like the idea...but I'm trying to understand how the Axe FX III could even "know" which one of the 4 beats was "the one."

(And as someone who plays prog-rock sometimes bordering on math-rock, one certainly can't presume the measure has only four beats! I've played parts in 13/8 that seriously groovy, such that everyone on the dance floor was shaking their booty, only to find on the second phrase of the chorus that their booty was confusingly not-in-quite-the-right-place. That tune won't hit the dance-charts any time soon, but for folks in the band, it was fun to watch.)

Beyond the question of how the Axe III could "know" which beat it was on, I'm also uncertain why it would matter. I use a lot of timed echoes that are synchronized to the tempo of the song, but if I play a note, its timed echoes will sound exactly the same whether I play the initial note on the "one" or on the "four."

I'm sure you understand your use-case better than I do, though!

Perhaps you could clarify?

UPDATE: It occurs to me that you might have a sequence that you triggered to start in some way. I suppose that start-event could be declared "the one." Or, perhaps you wanted the Axe FX III to be able to listen to an external MIDI Clock, transmitting measures and beats?
Click to expand...
I think this is the main sticking point with this wish. The Axe may tell you when the measure starts. But unless your drummer is watching your Tempo light, he won’t know when your measure starts. And that’s a recipe for trouble.
 
I get what your saying about what is the "one"! Great point!! I also get that if playing in 7/3 (or your 13/8), choosing the "one" would be odd, so definitely not great for that scenario, unless it were linked to the "Song List" that we got a few firmwares ago. Many have pined for being able to have specific tempos for Presets/Scenes/Sections/Songs, and in a scenario where that is available, the one would be more definable.

I have been playing my set to my DAW (Cubase 12) doing all my switching on the Axe, including tempo, scene, preset and will eventually be probably doing some on/off stuff for specific blocks. Based on a scenario like that, I could send a signal to the Axe to tell it where the one is as well. I really like not having to make the switches with my feet largely because my feet are busy playing the cajon with right foot and percussion with left foot. But as mentioned in the original post, I am not happy with my click track through monitors nor through IEM's and am wondering if a visual cue would be enough for me. I have also thought about getting one of those "bone" speakers/shoulder sets to play the metronome track I have coming from Cubase.

All that said, I just played a set (2hr 20min) without the click track for the first time in a few weeks, and I had a blast! It was so great to not be tied to the click track, and it was one of the best sets I have had in weeks! But I had to tap dance a lot and missed plenty of those moves because I had become used to Cubase doing that part for me. That tap dancing also cost me plenty of percussive moments.

Anyway, I usually have the tap tempo off because the flashing annoys me, but that was before I decided to try playing with a click track. If I do decide to move forward with click track playing, I would like to play around with a tap tempo that allowed me to set specific colors for different notes in the measure. I understand this is not for everyone, and there are going to be exceptions, but if that was the logic on what we should try and build into the Axe, many features would not be there because most people don't use most of it's feature best I can tell. We all have the bits we gravitate to that help us use this tool to our greatest satisfaction.

Thanks for the feedback Doc!
 
Just to be clear, the Axe-FX does not have beat sync. It only has tempo sync. The flashing light is not showing you beats, it is only showing the tempo. It might as well be showing you a bpm number instead of flashing lights. Since the flashing lights do not correspond to the beats in Cubase, it doesn't make sense to call one of every 4 flashes the "one".
 
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